


Eight Pheobs

by TopShelfOfficial



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: F/M, I'm posting a story after ages, Plance Valentines Day Exchange, long distance, pining pidge
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-14
Updated: 2019-02-14
Packaged: 2019-10-28 08:16:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,398
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17783840
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TopShelfOfficial/pseuds/TopShelfOfficial
Summary: She's trying to put it behind her. She's trying to salvage their relationship. She's trying to be rational.He doesn't let her.





	Eight Pheobs

**Author's Note:**

> Written for FenixSeraph, on the Plance Valentines Day Exchange. My theme was long distance. Fenix, I might not have been able to fulfill all your request, but you have to appreciate my clever interpretation of Altean Pidge.
> 
> Actually, you don't because we both know it's lazy.

Eight Phoebs

 

It feels like she's retreating. True, she had already accepted the offer to conduct research on New Altea months earlier than _the incident_ at Lance's Birthday Party, yet a part of her can't help but feel cowardly about leaving without establishing what happened between them. However, the fact that he hasn't reached out to her in the past five days is not too reassuring, so she feels justified with her decision. A knock on her door interrupts her train of thought, for which she is grateful. That is until she finds out who knocked in the first place.

_'Of course it's him.'_ Katie thinks to herself frustratedly. Out loud she just says, “Hey...”

“Hi...” Lance responds, just as eloquently. “Uhm, did you still want me to...See you off?” His right hand scratches the back of his head, and his eyes can't seem to settle on her face.

 

“Yeah, just give me a minute.” She runs back to finish her packing, and rushes past him to his car, gripping her luggage as if it was the only thing keeping her from falling apart. After days of _the incident_ taking up most of her thoughts, it completely escaped her mind that they had made this arrangement. Yet, even that fact that he hadn't forgotten, doesn't help with easing of the tension. _'I guess that's the problem with kissing.'_ she ponders as they silently drive to the Launch Site. _'Once it happens, you can't decide how to go on. Or maybe I'm the one with the problem.'_ Despite the silence, and his awkwardness in talking to her earlier, he doesn't look as shaken up about it as she feels. True, he might just be better at masking his emotions, but the Lance she knows wears his heart on his sleeve. However, even with the more frequent amount of time they had been spending with each other lately—what with them being one of the few Paladins predominantly based on earth—she has to admit that there is a lot she doesn't know about him anymore. As she begins to make out the shape of the base in the distance, Lance finally begins talking again. “So, you're going to be gone for eight pheobs, huh?”

 

“Yeah...” She had just begun to relax, but his tone makes her anxious again. “It's going to be weird not being able to hang out with my family or...other friends for that long.”

 

He sighs before he responds. “Pidge, can we talk about what happened? You know, on my Birthday?” Katie almost snorts when he specifies. _'As if I could have forgotten.'_ “I...You...Do we really need to talk about it?”

 

“I don't know, I think making out with my friend warrants a discussion with said friend. I know I should have reached out sooner, but...I don't know, I can't think of saying something that wouldn't sound like a lame excuse. But the point is, I'm ready to talk now. And I know this isn't the best time...”

 

“Your right!” She interrupts as her mind scrambles for a way out of this situation “Let's talk when I return.”

 

“What?! I thought we delayed this conversation long enough.”

 

“And I think it's still too raw for both of us. Plus, if we have it out now, I won't be able to concentrate on my research, and this trip will be a complete waste. Besides, by then we'll be able to laugh about it.”

 

“You,...You really think it's no big deal?”

 

“I...” she is so tempted to tell him how she really felt about it. About the weak knees and his fingers in her hair, and her heart singing, because he was reciprocating. She wants to tell him about all her mixed up emotions, and how for a blissful moment, everything seemed to be in its place, but then...She looks out the window to see them much closer to the base. Although she had a hand in designing them, the speed of these cruisers still astound her. She takes advantage of their proximity to close down the conversation. “Let's talk about this in eight pheobs, okay?” She takes the risk of looking him in the eye, as she says this, hoping that will further dissuade him from continuing. Her tactic seems to work, as just nods, although he seems to be disappointed. She can't fathom why he'd be disappointed, as she imagined he was as uncomfortable with talking about it as she was. She is soon caught up with saying her goodbyes to her other colleagues, family and friends alike, who had come to see her off. Her last interaction with Lance, is a hug that she probably lets linger longer than she should. However, he seems to take his time letting her go too. Once she is on the Space Craft, Katie finally takes some time to process what had happened. She is both relieved and disappointed that Lance accepted her terms, and that just makes her all the more frustrated with herself. She takes a few deep breaths as she tells herself, _'This is for the best.'_ As she brushes up on her Altean reading she tries to reassure herself by thinking. _'Once eight pheobs pass, you'll move on, and he'll chalk it up as a fluke, and things will go back to normal.'_ Yet, even as she thinks to herself, she can't help but detect a twinge of falseness to her statement. Sure, she can believe that Lance would gladly go back to the status quo, but she doubts that after all these years of harboring a crush on him, she would be able to put an end to those feelings after a few pheobs. Particularly now, that she has had a taste.

 

***

The first pheob passes relatively quietly. She makes great strides in her research, and is even able to strengthen her Altean Language Skills. Sure, every once in a her mind turns to him, particularly when she's on her own, but she doesn't let it slow her down. She's grateful for all the work she has, but even she can't keep the thoughts at bay all the time. However she is able to manage for the most part. This becomes derailed the night she gets his message.

 

The first movement of her trip, she got plenty of calls from friends from all over. This soon trickled down to just her family and occasionally Hunk. Lance never called. She understands that his farm doesn't exactly have the right resources to house the equipment need for trans-galactic communication, but if he really wanted to, he could have found a way to reach out to her. And there was also the more compact communication device that her dad and Matt were working on. However, she realizes that she is probably throwing these unreasonable accusations at him, because she does miss him. Fortunately, working with mostly means that she doesn't have to admit these feelings to anyone else. (Although, Coran had developed an annoying habit of surprising her on all the rare moments, where her mind would wander towards Lance instead of work. It was almost like he could sense it.) Either way, she tried to put up with it, which wasn't easy when lately Matt had been asking her rather pointed questions. 'So..., have you been talking to somebody interesting? You know, in a more,...social context.”

 

“Matt, who put you up to this?”

 

“Nobody! I'm just trying to catch up.”

 

“Really? Because we've talked yesterday, and you asked the exact same question.”

 

“There's nothing going on, besides, the fact that I have to ask means it clearly didn't work.”

 

“And you muttered something like that too. Matt, tell me what's going on?”

 

“I...Dad and I finally decided to test the compact trans-galactic communication device, and I might have added you're contact info to the test call sheet.”

 

“Matt!”

 

“These people have all been vetted, and I've let them know what hours are the best to contact you at. And if these, people do wind up bothering you, then let me know, and not only will we remove your info from future, but we'll remove the devices from the specific individuals.”

 

A red flag was waving in Katie's mind, but she swallowed this fear. “Ok, I guess I don't really mind, but I would have preferred if you asked for my permission, before handing out that information to strangers.”

 

“It's not that I was trying to keep this a secret from you, it's just...the day I was going to bring it up, you were so caught up in telling me about Altean Isotopes, that it completely escaped my mind. I'm really sorry about that.” The holographic image of her brother fidgets with his fingers as he explains himself. She still finds all this suspicious, but at the moment she's too tired to dig into the matter.

 

“Fine, but none of them better interrupt my sleep.”

 

 

“I'm going to kill Matt.” she grumbles Vargas later, as her communication device buzzes ceaselessly, interrupting her sleep. _'Best hours for contacting, my ass!'_

 

She is this close to just destroying her device, when it finally stops. She sighs as she settles back to sleep, only to be jolted back awake about twenty doboshes later. “You have one message!” it chirps. She sticks it in the fridge for the rest of the night.

 

The next morning, she is a bit disoriented when she finds it there again. Only to remember, all the irritation from the past night. She checks to see if there had been any more missed calls, but is relieved to find that there were no more calls after the message. She cues it up, as she begins to prepare the Altean equivalent of Coffee.

 

“Hey, Pidge...” Only to drop the mug as soon as she hears his voice. She turns around, and indeed, it is a smaller, more transparent version of Lance. “I'm starting to realize, that I am probably calling you at a bad time. Like, maybe your working, or even sleeping. Sorry if it's the latter.” he chuckles awkwardly, as he tries to find some other words. “I, uh, I don't really know what to say. I guess, I could bring up the reason I wanted to call you. Not that, I need to have a reason, your one of my best friends, and I miss you and...I'm getting of track. I felt bad about how our last conversation went, and so I tried finding a gift I could send to you. You know, to make amends. I tried to track down that game you whine about not having, Killbot Phantasm 26? I did wind up finding it, and you don't even want to know what I traded for it. Well, long story short, when I was about to send it to you—Unfortunately, not in mint condition, I couldn't resist playing it. Sorry.—I ran into Rizavi, who tried to buy it of me. She was really stubborn, about it, until I mentioned that it was a gift for you, then she said something like, 'Oh, I can't compete with that, she's earned it.' but when I tried to ask her what she was talking about, she clammed up and just ran away, so I got curious, and started asking around, and although most people don't seem to know what she means, Leifsdottir seems to know something, and I am in the process of getting the information out of her, but well, I thought it might be simpler if I just asked you directly. And Matt was nice enough to give me this experimental communicator, so yeah. If you get this message, let me know what times are good for you, and I'll...I'll be looking forward to talking to you again.” Once the message concludes, she feels like she can breath again. All at once she is overwhelmed with the need to do many different things. Call Lance back, find a way to swear Ina to secrecy, or simply fly back to earth to obliterate her brother. She settles for interrupting Matt's sleep.

 

“Why would you call so late? Do you have any idea how annoying it is to get to the Lab this early?”

 

“I'm sorry, maybe I wouldn't have been so thoughtless, if my device hadn't been ringing the whole night!”

 

“Lance just called you now? I gave him the prototype weeks ago.”

 

“Ha! So you don't deny...Did you say weeks?”

 

“Hmm? Yeah, I think. For the first week of you being gone, he 'randomly' decided to stick around. He kept on 'dropping in' to visit, and 'casually' ask how you're doing. What did you do that's got him so hung up on you?”

 

“Nothing!” Katie responds too fast.

 

“...Oh my Bob, you guys hooked up!”

 

“No we didn't!”

 

“Are you seriously going to lie to my face after waking me up at this ungodly hour?”

 

“I'm not lying, we didn't....Do anything like that...”

 

“But something did happen.” She doesn't answer, which causes Matt to whistle in amazement. “Well, what ever did or didn't happen between you to has got him desperate for any little interaction he can get out of you.”

 

“He's not desperate. He's just...trying get things back to normal.”

 

“And that's a bad thing?”

 

“Not really.”

 

“Then why have you been avoiding him?” Katie opens her mouth repeatedly to try and rationalize her actions, but can't really think of anything that even sounds remotely convincing to herself. “I'm just going to let you stew over that, while I try to catch up on some sleep. If you're that bothered by Lance contacting you, you know how the block feature works.” And with that he unceremoniously hangs up.

 

And just like that, Katie was left to stew on these events for the rest of the movement. Often, she would re-watch Lance's message, debating with herself if she should call him back. There are times that she is very close pushing the button that would connect their devices across the Galaxy, but in the last second she would change her mind. As the movement comes to an end, she receives another message, this one recorded during her working hours. She decides to compromise, after watching this second message for the umpteenth time. If he calls during her free time, she will pick up.

***

Two Pheobs and many more missed calls later, her device is ringing and she is neither trying to sleep or working on her various projects. She's almost tempted to ignore it, but kicks herself for indulging her hesitation yet again. _'If you could fly across the Universe and fight a intergalactic war as a teenager, then you can talk to a man who's been trying to reach you for months. What would Green think of you, if she saw you now?'_ She thinks to herself as she quickly presses 'Accept', before she could talk herself out of it again.

 

They stare at each other wordlessly for a bit. It's a little odd, Katie had thought she was used to seeing Lance in holographic form. However, seeing him and knowing that this is live and not a recording, is a little overwhelming, and from the look on his face, he is in a similar state.

 

“So, uhm, sorry for missing your calls.” She finally spits out.

 

“Uhh, yeah, that's ok. You must have been busy scienceing.”

 

“Or sleeping.”

 

“Quiznack, I'm so sorry!” He says as he facepalms. His bashfulness actually lifts the tension a bit.

 

“Don't worry, you've only interrupted my sleep five percent of the time, the rest of the time I had been busy...” Perhaps it is her conscience, but something prompts her to be more honest. “...and I was avoiding you.”

 

“...Why?”

 

She actually feels incredulous that he would be questioning her about this. He of all people should understand why she had been avoiding him. “I just didn't know where we stand right now, and I was afraid of finding out.”

 

“...You still don't want to have the conversation.”

 

“...And you still do.”

 

“Yes, and no.”

 

She raises an eyebrow at his none answer.

 

“Look, I still haven't forgotten about what happened between us, and honestly I can't stop thinking about it.” Her heart skips a beat at this confession, but she tries to settle down. “And yeah, I would like to talk about it, if only to get closure. But you said you wanted to wait until you return, so I'm trying to respect your wishes. Unless you say otherwise, I won't start the conversation before.”

 

“Then why all the calls?”

 

“I just missed you,....and I was afraid that by the time you returned, you'd decide that you're better off without me and our...complication.”

 

“Lance,...I would never want that. I tried to hold my distance, because I was afraid that I had messed things up.”

 

“No, Pidge. You could never mess anything up by me. You're my best friend.”

 

She feels her herself flush, but tries to play it off. “Does Hunk know about this?”

 

“Well, what he doesn't know can't hurt him.” They share a laugh, and for the first time in a while it feels like they are back to how they used to be before _the Incident_. “So, I never was able to get Rizavi and Leifsdottir to spill, what exactly happened in relation to Killbot Phantasm 26?”

 

And just like that the moment is over. Yet this time, Katie doesn't want to back away anymore. There are too many things that could potentially upset their already fragile relationship, and she's not going to let one small thing from years past get in the way. Not anymore. “Oh, nothing really. I almost had the opportunity to own it back before our final bought with Honerva and stuff, but I had to trade it for something more important.”

 

“Really? What could be more important than games to you?”

 

She takes a deep breath before answering. “Allura.” As she predicted they both go still at the name. However, she is surprised that his cheekmarks don't light up. _'I could have sworn....'_ She begins to wonder, but opts to fill the silence with some further explanation. “Me and the other girls were helping her find a dress for your first date, and I got a bit carried away using my fame to get cool stuff, including the game. When we finally found the perfect dress, the barterer wouldn't exchange it for anything reasonable except the game. Allura was ready to cut her losses, but I couldn't let her do that. We may have not been the closest among the Paladins, and she may have been a princess, but...she had just lost so much already, I just didn't want her to have to sacrifice anything anymore. If only I could have,...”

 

“...Yeah, I get it.” The dejected look that she despises covers his face, however, it is soon followed by a small half-smile. “That was pretty generous of you.”

 

“I-it was nothing. Any decent person would have done the same thing.”

 

“That doesn't change the fact that you were the decent person in this case. So, thank you for that, and for telling me about it. And, I guess for finally picking up. It was great to talk like this.”

 

“Yeah, I liked talking with you too.”

 

He responds with a radiant smile, and only now do the cheekmarks light up. Katie tries not to let it upset her, but can't entirely ignore the pang in her heart. “Hey, I have to go grab something to eat, but if you call me around this time again, I promise to pick up.”

 

“Ok, I'll keep that in mind. Talk to you later.” Once he hangs up, Katie breaths a sigh of relief. “Ok, that wasn't so bad. You can keep doing this, you can still be his friend.” But even though she is the only one who can hear herself say this, she can't help but feel like she's trying to sound convincing.

 

***

The next few pheobs pass seemingly well. Not only does Lance consistently call her, but she sometimes is brave enough to contact him too. Sometimes she'll even call him during work hours, just to gush about a breakthrough she had. He listens, asks questions, and laughs at the right moment, and on the surface, it seems like they have their old friendship back. Katie knows better. Katie is aware that each time they talk she falls just a little bit more in love with him. She knows that despite trying to put _the incident_ behind her, she can't stop dreaming about it. As time passes, she more often than not wakes up with the memory of his lips upon her own. It makes trying to be _just_ his friend a little more difficult with each passing quintant. And then there are his cheekmarks. In some kind of ironic twist, they seem to lighting up at the same frequency of her recurring dreams. It's almost as if they are reminding her to back of. So, she has started to take it as her cue to sign off, whenever they do light up. Lance never seems to acknowledge them, but he does always seem disappointed when she cuts their conversation short. Things finally come to a head in the middle of her sixth pheob. They had been talking about a particularly difficult level in KP 26, cracking jokes and laughing to the point of tears. As she was catching her breath, she couldn't help but think that this was too similar to _the incident_. Back then they had also been laughing about some kind of shared memory, when they were suddenly caught up in a tension none of them were used to having around each other. The difference was that by this time, one of them had already kissed the other, which isn't quite possible in their current state. This frustrates Katie to no end, and if her eyes aren't deceiving her, Lance isn't too crazy about their predicament either. Of course, now the cheekmarks decide to light up. Just like they always do when she gets too comfortable with him; Just like they did on his birthday.

 

“Hey, I should probably...”

 

“Stop!” He interrupts her, his the lights on his cheeks instantly fading.

 

“What do you mean?” She tries to deflect, as if she doesn't know what he's referring to.

 

“Come on, Pidge. Do you really think I didn't notice what you've been doing? Every time we really hit a stride, you shut things down. And I know you probably have a good reason, but it's not like I can help it...”

 

“Lance...”

 

“I mean, these cheekmarks didn't come with an instruction manual, so I don't know how to control their glowing. So, if I've been doing something offensive by Altean Standards, you could at least tell me what it is I'm doing.”

 

“Wait, what makes you think I know more about cheekmark etiquette than you?”

 

“Well, you've been living on New Altea, right? You should have picked up a few things right?”

 

“I came here to study science and engineering, not anthropology. The only times I have seen cheekmarks light up was when someone was doing magic. All I know, is that you're cheekmarks seem to work differently than the typical Altean ones. I know as much as you do.”

 

“But you do have a theory.”

 

“...The first time they lit up, it was when the Lions left.”

 

“Yeah?”

 

“And the marks themselves, they were a gift from Allura.”

 

“What does that have to do with anything?”

 

“Voltron was strongly tied to Allura's essence, and I think those marks tie you to her.”

 

“...I...Yes, but...I didn't even think about her most of the time when they light up.”

 

“But maybe she's thinking about you.”

 

“What are you trying to say?”

 

“I don't know, which I know sounds weird coming from me. But I can't help but think that it's a reminder.”

 

“Of what?”

 

“Of the fact that I need to let you go.”

 

“How could you let me go? No, scratch that. Why would Allura want you to let me go? Yes, I miss her everyday, but she made her choice, and....She wouldn't want me to be hung up on her forever. It took me a while to realize this, but the Allura I knew would have wanted me to find happiness eventually. Besides, it's not like we saw this coming, it just sorta happened,...”

 

“It wasn't a surprise for me...” She mutters.

 

“...Wha-what do you mean?” the blush on his face almost makes her smile. “How could you have known that I had that kind of feelings for you? I didn't even know...”

 

 

“I didn't know about how you felt, I knew about how I felt.”

 

“...How long?” He asks her bashfully, which wrecks all kinds of havoc on her emotions.

 

“I guess, since we were grouped together at the Garrison.” She shrugs.

 

“But...You were so mean to me!”

 

“I was fifteen, and you were my first crush, which I wasn't even aware of because I was so focused on finding my family. So I interpreted my attraction as annoyance, and jealousy as irritation. What did you expect.”

 

“Fair point.”

 

“And besides, even after you found out I was a girl, you wouldn't stop treating me like 'one of the guys.' and you were so hung up on Allura, I didn't even entertain the thought that I might have a chance. So, I know it sounds irrational, but I can't help but think that your cheeks lighting up has something to do with me overstepping my bounds.”

 

“You can't think that way, it's not like you brainwashed me or something...did you?”

 

“Lance!”

 

“I'm just making sure! If anyone could do it, it would be you, and if I do say so myself, kissing you was pretty mindblowing.”

 

“Shut up!” She says as she tries to hide her flush.

 

“I'm serious! I don't just get sporadic flashbacks to all my kisses. Heck, I don't even think back on kissing Allu...Wait, don't!” Perhaps if he had only mentioned Allura, or if only his cheeks had lit up, she would have been brave enough to continue the conversation. But the fact that both happened at the same time, made her afraid of the implications, so she disconnected their call.

 

***

She ignores his subsequent calls, and after a few movements, he stops calling altogether. She's relived once he stops, but simultaneously heartbroken. Unlike the last time, he knows too much. There is no way for them to salvage their relationship anymore. She allows herself the evenings to mourn their friendship, and throws herself into her work otherwise. As the end of her last pheob approaches, she begins to become anxious. She hopes that Lance will remain on his farm upon her return, but she can never predict his actions. _'I could always open a scientific branch somewhere remote or untraceable. Maybe I could apply for another research grant. Somewhere his frequency can't reach.'_ She contemplates as she makes her way to her home after another long day of research.

 

“So, are you thinking about something really complicated, or are you just trying to forget an earworm?”

 

“Wha?!!!” Katie jumps when she is startled by the last voice she was expecting to hear. “Lance? How are you here?”

 

“I rented a shuttle. Luckily, I was able to get a huge discount, or I might have had to sell my farm.”

 

“I..but...Why?”

 

“Why? Can't a guy surprise his friend on her birthday?”

 

“But it's not my...” She checks her calendar, then converts it to earth time units, and it is in fact her birthday. “Oh, I'd completely forgotten. But that still doesn't explain why you're here.”

 

“Do you,...Not want me to be here?”

 

“I...we left off on bad terms. You had stopped calling. I thought that meant things were done between us.”

 

“I can understand why you would think that, but I didn't stop calling you because I was done with you, I did it, because I was doing research.”

 

“Research. You?”

 

“Hunk helped, but it was my idea. And besides, after _the incident_ at my birthday, did you really think I'd let you out of this without some kind of payback?”

 

“...You came all the way to New Altea, because you wanted to make out with me?”

 

“No! I mean, I wouldn't be opposed, but I was actually hoping to discuss the results of my research over dinner. And if the night does lead to making out, then who am I to argue with the night?”

 

“I...I'm sorry I just can't get over the fact that you did alleged research.”

 

“Okay, now you're just being a troll.”

 

“Sorry, force of habit.”

 

“I know, I wouldn't have it any other way.” He says in a voice that almost sounds dreamy. His cheekmarks begin to glow faintly, but he instantly shakes it off. “Anyway, Hunk helped me make a reservation at a fancy restaurant, and I would really like to celebrate your birthday with you. If that's alright with you.”

 

She tells herself she should walk away. She scans her mind to find the perfect words to politely decline.

“Sure, it's alright with me.” is what she says instead.

 

This is how they end up having dinner at one of the most prestigious restaurants in New Altea; A part of Hunks franchise, naturally. He doesn't bring up his research, but instead focus on catching up with her, joking with her, and even lightly flirt with her. It feels suspiciously like a date. The suspicion grows, when they take a walk towards Lake Tahirna—A location notorious for being a romantic hotspot. She wonders how Lance even knew about this. As she is about to ask him about this, she notices that once again, his cheekmarks are lit up. _'Of course.'_ she laments to herself, as she attempts to leave him behind. Lance is having none of that.

 

“Wait, sorry.” he says as he grabs her hand gently. “This why I did my research. I really did want to discuss it over dinner, but I got too caught up with hanging out with you...Anyways, this is a good time as any to explain my findings as any.”

 

“You did research on your cheekmarks?”

 

“Yeah, I figured you wouldn't be able to move past them without understanding them, so I tried to find out what their deal is. I mostly did it by asking people when they remembered ever seeing my cheekmarks light up, and testing to see when and why they do. Hunk helped me make sense of all my results.”

 

“And what were they?” She asks, curiosity and a little hope dripping from her tone.

 

“Well, we might need to do some more tests, but so far we've only seen my cheeks light for two reasons. 1. I am in the proximity of some strong quintessence based activity. And 2...” He lets go of her hand, only to put both of them on her face. “I am extremely, ludicrously, happy.” He whispers before he lowers his lips unto hers. It's not as ravenous as the one on his birthday, but it is nonetheless passionate. It feels too soon when they finally separate. “So what do you think, Katie? Does my research have any merit?” He asks with a goofy grin, cheeks aglow.

 

“I...” She begins to say as she hesitantly puts her thumb on one of his marks. She braces her self for some kind of shock, or some other sign to put a stop to this. All she feels is warmth. The warmth emboldens her. “I think I need to conduct my own field tests.” she moves her hand to the back of his head and pulls him closer. “Care to help me out?”

 

“I thought you'd never ask.”

 

The spend the rest of the evening kissing, laughing, and just holding each other. His cheekmarks are at a constant glow now, and although this would have scared her just yesterday, it now makes her heart soar. She can't know for sure if this will last, but, perhaps because it is her birthday, she decides to believe that it can.

 


End file.
